I did my 1st smoke yesterday on a Brinkman Smoke n Grill (charcoal). I used 2pcs of boston butt about 7lbs each, one on the bottle grill, one on the top. I smoked it for about 12hrs keeping the temp between 200-235. After 12 hrs I wrapped in foil and put them in a cooler for about an hour...

When I went to pull the meat, it really didn't shred easily like when I've done them in a crock pot. I was expecting the meat to fall off the bone but I had to work to get it off. It had the nice red ring near the top but the juiceness wasn't there.

We don't cook by time here we use temps. So it will be difficult to determine what happened with your Boston Butt. It sounds like it might have gone into a stall and that it did not get to an IT of 205 which is where we recommend going to pull apart doneness.

Please do us a favor and stop by Roll Call and introduce yourself so we can give you a SMF welcome

I would also recommend a thermometer to make sure you get the temps your looking for. I would suspect that the butts didn't get done enough to pull. If you can't get a thermo then smoke the butts till the bone wiggles freely and feels like it will slip right out then foil them for at least an hour in a warm dry cooler to let the juices redistribute then take them out and pull them.

thanks for all the answers, i do have a digital thermometer, but i used it for getting a reading above the grate.....never dawmed on me to get an IT reading, after 12 hours of cooking I just figured it would be done......I also had a pan of water below the lower rack and above the fire and it was simmering/ sometimes boiling........is this a good way to go or can i just leave the pan out? thx again!

Without a thermometer you really don't know when things are done for sure. Most people will recommend that you get a dual probe thermometer which will enable you to know the temp of your smoker as long as the temp that your meat is at. Most of the time the stock thermometers that come with your smoker are not very accurate so you were probably smoking at a lot less of temp then you though or the internal temp of your meat didn't get high enough to pull (200+).